Westwind

Once upon a time in a region somewhere in NS......we required all regional officials to post on the forum at least every other day (preferably daily). And an official was also expected to reply to every thread in his/her jurisdiction frequently. Activity begets Activity. The interior official should be posting in interior threads, starting new threads, regularly. Same for Defense, Foreign Affairs, et al. There should be new material in every category frequently. There should never be a category that hasn't had activity in a month or more. Get rid of those categories if you're not using them. In other words, streamline your customer's experience and provide them value. Part of an official's duties is keeping up activity in their area of responsibility. And maintaining the pinned threads, make sure they are up to date and relevant. When officials post regularly, it gives non-officials something of interest to read and maybe respond to. That creates activity. It's really simple. If they cannot do that for a time (keep up this activity level), they should post an absence notice. If they fail to post in a certain time span (one week?), or fail to post a notice of absence, or fail to appoint a deputy in their absence, they need to be replaced quickly. Otherwise the gears of activity slow and stop, and the entire region suffers. One official that's slowed down or inactive will encourage the same in other officials. It becomes a snowball of inactivity if it's not addressed. Today you have Discord, and no one pays attention to the forums because of it. The work needed on the forum doesn't' get done. (Key disclosure here though - I loath Discord, so I'm very biased. I'm a forum rat, not a chatroomer) Some questions: - Is not Customer Service part of your job as a regional official? - Why should people come to the forum when they are constantly encouraged to go to Discord on the RMB? - What value does it provide to your customers that they should sign up for yet another offsite venue? Or should I say.... - Why should players, already being asked to go offsite from the game they joined, be expected to visit multiple offsite venues in order to participate in the game? Or rather said... - The more venues, the more you complicate your customer's experience. Doesn't this obviously drive away potential customers (potential active players)? - Why do you, as a regional administration, require this of your 'citizens'? Join a forum, join Discord, sign an oath...and finally we accept you into the fold as a customer/player. You're demanding too many hoops for your customers (players) to jump through in order to be recognized as 'one of us with the right to have a say'. The game doesn't require this. Player administrations do, and create stagnant oligarchies over the long term. Like IRC, Discord is good for instant interaction, and is more accessible for that purpose than the RMB. Unlike IRC or the RMB, it provides you the ability to create multiple rooms/channels....like forum threads...to organize the conversation. Unlike forums, it does not provide the ability to readily organize and provide easy access to information that hasn't just been posted. Forums provide a better long term organizational and informational situation than Discord. Information can be pinned for presentation, turned into announcements, archived, reorganized, etc etc. Forums are like a book, it has chapters (catagories) sub-chapters (threads). Discord is like a student's notebook. Lots of scattered disorganized notes and information that only the OP can discern and know it's organization, but of much less use to others and newcomers. And yet, the forums aren't being used in their natural capacity. I just noticed yesterday, there are many pinned informational threads here and there around the forum that remain from my Delegacy. Those should have been updated/replaced several Delegacies (years) ago. This is slack housekeeping by successive administrations. I'm not even a TWP citizen (sidetrack: I loath NS citizenship oaths. I'm already in the region, I'm already participating, I'm already contributing....don't make me sign an oath to anything just for being here in order for the 'region' to acknowledge my contributions - it's simply bullshit to act as a gatekeeper to who gets to be part of the 'IN' crowd/oligarchy. End citizenship oaths! One does not need an oath to be held to the standards of the region. That's false reasoning.) Okay.....I gotta run.....

Sun Tzu called it the 'Divine Manipulation of the Threads'. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, no one can discover your secrets and systems. 1. Local spies - services of local inhabitants 2. Inward spies - making use of officials of the enemy 3. Converted spies - using the enemies spies for your own purposes 4. Doomed spies - taking false information to the enemy 5. Surviving spies - execute operations based on information gathered or situations created by other spies

Still waiting....

I liked Sixguns software.

I know, right?

Beware of those 'other realms'. Especially RL. I was an editor in RL in the 70's/80's/90's. (this is not an application)

Although someone else's gravedig can be used as an opportunity for a traditional TWP threadjack. So next time a Nuclear Apocalypse approaches, don't forget the wisdom of Dr. Strangelove. "Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy, the FEAR to attack." Be sure they will fear TWP before the next apocalypse!

I read that as "add to the Trolls".

That was my recollection, but I wasn't sure. I was pretty much working directly with Gates. (Which was good with all the factions I was trying to juggle.) I think CN's impact on NS is often forgotten or discounted. Gameplay was impacted by the talent migration to CN as much as it was by Influence. Although there was dissatisfaction in the NS gameplay ranks before CN that boosted interest.

It seemed a little light on questions in your thread . Had to give you a chance to expound a bit more. Can't help you with the password, but: http://z11.invisionfree.com/Neutral_Territory/index.php? Yeah, they were unhinged. Right when folks signed up for the board it told you - Blue sky thinking here, leave your gameplay biases at the door - and instead they barged in towards the end of the conference and told everyone how evil everyone was for ever even thinking about thinking about raids. On Westwind, Sir Lans (FRA) said, "He's destroying the game!" because I dared to propose 'The Destroyers' to remove 'deadwood' regions from the game. (TAO presented the same general idea in another form). Liberty Alliance perhaps?

*nods* A CommRanger RMB activity device. Maybe you'd prefer this Jack Daniels Whiskey Fudge I just stumbled upon.... https://www.wineandglue.com/jack-daniels-whiskey-fudge/

When Zeta was Delegate, I was simply here as the Equilism Ambassador to TWP.

Yeah, Eli's thread is a good idea, but it's going to be too cluttered. Each old timer needs their own thread. I was asked to do a lecture at the NS Worlds Fair one year, and I couldn't limit it to any one subject so I asked for it to be a Q&A, which it was. I think much to Unibot's chagrin, he lost control of the questions and they weren't going where he wanted. I think people had fun though, which is more important. Okay.....here's ten random questions for you to consider.....or not. 1. What was you favorite thing about the Neutral Territory conference, of which you were an admin. What was the thing that bothered you the most at Neutral Territory? (One of Westwind's memories......as I am brought in as a 'Moderator' (hidden Admin) at Neutral Territory, Dark introduces herself to me and tells me "we're alot older than you think". I chuckled to myself, already knowing Gates age, and knowing that I'm a couple years older than Dark.) 2. What was the first region you moved to after founding? 3. What, if any role, did you play in The Crimson Order events of The North Pacific ten years ago? Gatesville was there in support, TAO was TWP Delegate. Ivan was secretly in my government. (There's alot untold about Crimson, heh, .....there was the near TNP/TP war in the midst of that.) 4. Which did you enjoy more? Your first term or second term as TWP Delegate? 5. What positions did you hold in The Pacific? We're you a member of both NPO and PRP? 6. Do you think NS needs a new 'Gatesville' to crusade against the WA? 7. Occasionally in the world, the prevailing paradigm shifts drastically. What do you think it would take to break the R/D paradigm in NS, and open up gameplay to a more diverse game environment? 8. Do you recall the United Cyprus operation in Greece? 9. You and I have both complained, argued, explained, hoped for change.....over Influence. After 12 years of Influence, and changes in it's calculation in the Feeders, what is your position on Influence now? 10. "Does eat oat and Lambs eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy." (my mother liked singing that) Is Chocolate bad for Does and Lambs? (And, is the presence of chocolate attracting Marsupials to the region?) *slides a chocolate mousse in a Guinness glass with a cherry on top to Dark*

Hey Zeta, been a long long time.

Beware, I know some of Dilber's secrets.